Retrobrite the original Famicom

[zmaster18]

I have tried whitening the plastic with hydrogen peroxide, but I've noticed that the plastic barely gets any whiter. Has anyone else had success whitening the plastic? I've had success whitening Super Famicoms and a PC Engine, but my Famicom doesn't change very much. Perhaps the plastic is different?

[kiwidaveinjapan]

Using the 'official recipe' on the retr0brite site, I have managed to get a quite yellow famicom a few shades lighter, but i only started last weekend. that was two days worth of appliactions. I'm looking at doing another couple of days over the next week or so. I think the plastic age can depend a lot on the age of the Famicom itself. I have one perfectly white, and the one I am working on now. It does vary hugely batch to batch. Photos to come.

[fredJ]

I don't think there is a problem brighting famicom plastic.
Only items that have become brown are hard to bright. It is the same with SFC, you can't brighten them if they are brown.

[zmaster18]

Not true, I get the brownest Super Famicoms and I have already been able to get them perfectly blueish-grey, just like it was originally. And that was using 3% peroxide! I'm thinking it might have to do with the flame-retardant chemicals in the Super Famicom plastic, and maybe these chemicals aren't in the Famicom's plastic?

[fredJ]

Well, retrobright wasn't made specifically for flame-retardant chemicals, it was made for any plastic. And both me and others have been successfully brighting famicoms. Although I don't do it anymore, because it takes too long, costs too much, and the UV light started hurting my eyes because I was stupid and didn't know about that risk.

I find it hard to believe you can turn a brown SFC back to what it was originally. The brown consoles so fragile they are cracking by touch, they are not sunfaded, but completely degraded inside and out. But okay, I won't argue.

[Pemdawg]

Is anyone in the US doing any retr0brite-ing soon? I have my Famicom apart and ready to go, and I could slip you a few bucks to do mine when you do yours! PM me pleeeease!

[zmaster18]

Well if you mean browned as in like a paper-bag like colour, then I've retrobrited 3 Super Famicoms so far! Although the underside was still grey, so maybe it's not like what you described! Also which UV light do you use? I want to get a UV bulb like the ones used for reptiles, but all the reviews I have read for them say the bulb breaks quickly...

[subpixel]

I did two lazy-man's retr0brite sessions on a yellowed original Famicom a few weeks ago and the results were pretty exciting.  It's not perfect but it's waaaayy nicer than it was and I'm definitely satisfied with how it came out.  It was pretty clear that whoever had it before me had tried nail polish remover or something on it but basically just burned off the matte finish and gunked it up a bunch.  Here's how it went for me:

1.  Disassembled the Famicom and covered that little hole underneath the "Family Computer" sticker with some heavy duty double-sided foam tape

2.  Into a pyrex pan I poured common 3% hydrogen peroxyde (it was around 64 oz - $5 at the 'dollar' store) and about 3-4 tsp of oxyclean

3.  Stirred it just a little bit and put the top part of the Famicom into the dish with some shot glasses to weigh it down.

4.  The pan sat in direct sunlight on a steadily sunny day for about 4-5 hours.  Throughout the process I would rotate the pan to give it a somewhat even angle from the sun and move the glasses around in case the uv rays were getting dispersed by the glass.  After a while it got a little bubbly in the pan so I would scoop some of that off.  I honestly have no idea about the science behind it.  I was just so amped on the process so I was just kind of winging it as I went along.

5.  After that I washed it off with some water, towel dried it and let it sit and did the same thing the next day. 

6.  In the end the top and front clear stickers remained seemingly unharmed but with no brightening effect underneath (you can see from the pics that the lightest part from before appear the darkest afterwards).  The front "Family Computer" sticker unfortunately got pretty bubbly even with the foam tape so I ended up peeling the clear label off which revealed that it did actually get a little lighter in the process but not crazy.  One thing to note is that even after I took the Famicom out and rinsed/dried it, it did seem even brighter in the morning of the following day after just sitting inside.  Might just be my mind, who knows.

Looking back on it, if I were to do it again I might try to do it in one day, with 6% peroxide and start a little earlier to get more daylight in one shot.  Also it would have been nice to keep the label on the front in better condition so I'd probably check out removing the whole plate ahead of time and reapply it afterwards.  I did take some more pictures of the process so if you want to see some let me know.  Hopefully this helps anyone on their journey.

[Pikkon]

I have tried whitening the plastic with hydrogen peroxide, but I've noticed that the plastic barely gets any whiter. Has anyone else had success whitening the plastic? I've had success whitening Super Famicoms and a PC Engine, but my Famicom doesn't change very much. Perhaps the plastic is different?

How are you doing it and how much time in the sun?

The best way is to soak the system in hydrogen peroxide and I have noticed adding oxy clean doesn't really make a difference.

[fredJ]

Nice results!
The oxy is supposedly a catalyst for the process... However, the hydrogen peroxyde is a bleach (it is used as such for bleaching horns of animals, hair, etc) so I am suspicious about the "magic" results of retr0bright. Maybe it just bleaches the plastic?
At least, one can expect that red and other colors will be faded if they aren't covered.
I would love to try would you did. Here in the Nordic countries, sunlight is scarce... I also don't know of any cheap 3% hydrogen peroxyde.
Calculating time for bleaching + cost + time for disassembling the console and putting it together... might not be cost effective.

[Raverrevolution]

Two weeks ago I just Retrobrited my very brown Super Famicom and it needed two separate days of whitening in the sun to get it a nice color.  Instead of the pyrex dish I just used an aluminum pan.  That actually might help more as it's more reflective in the sun.

Anyway the whole process works wonders.  I've done it on 2 Famicoms, 1 PC Engine, and a Super Famicom.

At first it's amazing once you put everything back together and you have a shiny white system, but then it starts to become a pain to have to go out of your way to buy the ingredients and have the patience for a nice day to arrive to be able to set it all up.  I keep thinking the cashiers in the stores think I'm building some type of bomb with all the hydrogen peroxide I'm buying lol.

[subpixel]

Ha, yeah.  The neighbors definitely gave me some weird looks .  I think you're right about the aluminum pan.  It probably give a much more even brightening so you don't have to keep moving things around.  Do you get a ton of foam like I did?  Do you know if it even matters?

[zmaster18]

I prefer dunking in peroxide without the oxy, as the foam can permanently bleach parts that are floating at the surface of the liquid. I also kinda believe the foam blocks out some of the light perhaps.

[Raverrevolution]

Yeah I got foam as well, but it didn't seem too overbearing.  To think of it now I bet it did block some UV rays from entering, but then again how much can foamy hydrogen peroxide block?  I would think it's miniscule, but I may be wrong.

[security16]

I've been giving it a go on an old super famicom that seems to have been browned by cigarette smoke but it's browned both inside and out. I've had a bit of success with the outside. Going to try it on my old C64 and see how it goes with that. It seems to be the luck of the draw with it